Kevin Durant led Oklahoma City to a Game 1 win over Miami in the NBA finals.

If Kevin Durant wins the NBA title – or, one could say, LeBron James loses it – it’s actually a pretty awesome thing for the league. He’s everything David Stern could want: a seemingly sweetheart of a mamma’s boy, a three-time scoring champ hitting his stride and a guy who signed with a small-market and carried that team from the lottery to the Larry O’Brien trophy.

But today, let’s commend Durant for what Denver fans know of so well – his viciousness in the fourth quarter, his ability to take over a game and bury a team when it matters most. Some stars just aren’t wired that way. But Durant put on a spectacle last night, scoring 17 points in the decisive quarter, giving Oklahoma City a 1-0 lead against Miami, heading into Thursday’s Game 2. Consider this stat, courtesy of ESPN – Durant scored 17 last night in the fourth. Last season in the entire NBA Finals, LeBron combined for 18 fourth-quarter points.

Here’s a good piece about KD from ESPN’s J.A. Adande, who quoted Kobe Bryant, saying Durant could become a “6-11 me.”

Of course, it will be fascinating to see what types of defensive changes the Heat make on Durant. Which player/players will spend more time on Durant will be a fascinating storyline heading into Game 2 – who do you think Miami should put on him?

LeBron James apologists have pretty successfully turned the tide on much of the criticism about his on-court performance this season by simply trotting out his full line of stats. And those are impressive. James is arguably the greatest talent the NBA has ever seen — and yet his kryptonite has been an inability to perform when stars of his magnitude have thrived and become legends: In the last five minutes of a close game.

His failure to come up big when the Heat has needed it most in these playoffs is underscored by his team’s season now being on the brink. The Heat must win tonight in Boston to send the Eastern Conference finals back to Miami for a decisive Game 7 or go home without another game to play until next season.

It is also in stark contrast to Oklahoma City’s Kevin Durant, who has made play after clutch play when the Thunder has had to have it in these playoffs. His team is headed to the NBA Finals.

Nuggets center JaVale McGee appears to be having as good a time as the team's fans in the Pepsi Center on Thursday night as he enjoys Denver's 13-0 run to start Game 6 of the first-round playoff series against the Los Angeles Lakers.

The Denver Nuggets defeated the Los Angeles Lakers 113-96 on Thursday night in Game 6 of their first-round series in the NBA playoffs, forcing a decisive Game 7 on Saturday night in L.A.

In Game 3, the Nuggets shot 37.5 percent from 3-point range, making six of 16 attempts. That was the Nuggets’ best 3-point shooting night of the series.

“My biggest wish probably would be to make some 3s, we’re missing so many pretty good looks,” Nuggets coach George Karl said today at the shootaround. “There’s a frustration there. But the game is all about intensity for us.”

Jack Nicholson talks to Stan Kroenke, with Josh Kroenke at right, during Game 2 in L.A.

LOS ANGELES – Over the years, Nuggets coach George Karl has had numerous back-and-forths during Laker games with actor Jack Nicholson (films such as “Man Trouble” and “Mars Attacks!”).

In Tuesday’s Game 5 at Staples Center, Denver had a nice lead in the fourth quarter when Jack, sitting near the Nuggets bench, talked to the Nuggets coach.

“Jack mumbled something at about the seven-minute mark, saying something like, ‘It’s not over,’ ” Karl recalled today. “I said, ‘I’ve been in this building. Don’t worry, I’ve been here before and lost, so I know it’s not over.’ ”

Nuggets guard Andre Miller, right, recorded 24 points and eight assists in Game 5 on Tuesday in L.A.

LOS ANGELES – Andre Miller has been around so long and played for so many teams that it’s easy to forget that he’s from Los Angeles.

It’s part of what made his 24 points and eight assists in a dominating, turn-back-the-clock performance all the more satisfying. It was the 36-year-old Miller’s highest-scoring playoff game since scoring 31 points for Portland in Game 1 of a 2010 first-round series against Phoenix. He had eight assists in that game, too.

“It feels good to be 13 years in and play like this,” said Miller, who starred for Verbum Dei High. “Especially because I’m at home.”

Pardon the interruption here. Most people who pick up the Post know me as the hockey guy, the guy who has covered the Avalanche since, gulp, 1995. When it comes to sports, I’m definitely a hockey guy now. You cover it this long, you can’t help it.

But there was a time when — many years in fact — I would put myself up against anyone as a basketball junkie. Ask me anything still about the NBA from approximately 1976-89, and I will probably answer it right. Ask me anything about my team then — the Celtics — and I will get it right. I have a collection of approximately 200 VHS tapes of Celtics games from that era, and I watch ‘em all the time. I read Zander Hollander’s yearly basketball player thumbnail book religiously, played basketball all day long, and went to Johnny Most’s basketball camp as a 13-year-old (best story: the legendary, late Celtics radio announcer once yelled at me because I was torching his son, Lester, in a pickup game at the camp. I can still hear Johnny’s cigarette-stained voice yelling “Come on Les, pick ‘em-up and lay ‘em down against this red-head kid.”

(Another strange occurrence of me being yelled at by a legend for my play on a basketball court came from reclusive author JD Salinger, who was a spectator in a game between my Hanover, N.H., team and Cornish, the town he lived. After I drew a foul by flopping on a charge, the irate Salinger stood and bellowed that I was a “thespian” on the court).

After stumbling in the first two games of the NBA playoffs, the Nuggets hope to get a boost from the home crowd Friday night at the Pepsi Center, and find the formula to defeat Kobe Bryant and the Los Angeles Lakers.

Yep. After two games, the 7-foot Laker Gasol has 13 assists, while Denver’s starting point guard Lawson has nine.

“I’m just trying to find my open teammates, trying to see what’s going on and give easy looks to (low-post partner Andrew) Bynum most of the time,” Gasol said. “And then Kobe (Bryant) is such a good cutter and holds his position so well in the paint, so he’s a definer for me. I’m just trying to make our offense work, get a little movement and get guys easy shots.”

LOS ANGELES — “We weren’t ready to play,” Denver’s Corey Brewer said of his team. “Tonight we got to come out aggressive and jump on them early.”

Today at the Nuggets’ shootaround, here at Loyola Marymount, the Nuggets talked about being the Nuggets again. Yes, the Lakers are really good. But Denver felt that it was playing a little nervously and that affected the flow.

“The most-important thing is – we need to start playing our way and not their way,” Nuggets coach George Karl said today, as his team prepares for tonight’s Game 2 at Staples Center, where Denver will try to split the series.

LOS ANGELES — In the course of this series, one would surmise that at least once there will be a close fourth quarter (right?).

If so, the Los Angeles Lakers have Kobe Bryant.

Nuggets coach George Karl, as he does, beautifully put into perspective the importance of fourth-quarter Kobe for the Lakers (Kobe did score 14 fourth-quarter points in Game 1, which ain’t bad, but it wasn’t a must-score situation).

Nuggets forward Kenneth Faried battles for a loose ball against the Lakers this season.

Here are four things to keep an eye on in the Nuggets-Lakers NBA playoff series:

The Nuggets’ drive-and-kick game: They haven’t solved all of their offensive execution issues in the half court, but this has been an effective cure for many of their ills – and has been a good counter to teams looking to simply plug the lane against the Nuggets and take their chances. The Nuggets just keep the ball in constant motion, probing the defense until they either get a lane to the basket or get the defense to help and leave a shooter open.

One of the Nuggets’ favorite reads is a backside 3-point shooter, and when he’s on the court usually that player is Arron Afflalo. An initial screen is set for a point guard, and that screen is set so the point guard drives away from the side Afflalo is on. The guard uses the screen, and as he gets into the lane looks for the cross-court pass to the open shooter on the backside of the play, whose man has collapsed into the lane for help defense. More often than not, that player gets an uncontested or lightly-contested shot. For a weak jump-shooting team like the Nuggets this action is gold because NBA players – good jump shooters or not -– can knock down open looks.

LOS ANGELES — “When he gets started up on offense with the ball,” the Nuggets’ Corey Brewer said, “he gets to rattlin’.”

And so, Arron Afflalo has been given the nickname “The Rattlesnake” by teammate Andre Miller –- and the nickname has caught on out here in L.A., where the Nuggets will face the Lakers and Kobe Bryant, “The Black Mamba.”

“I don’t know if you’ve ever seen a black mamba, but it’s not a very big snake and not a very impressive snake – the rattlesnake is more impressive,” said Nuggets coach George Karl, dipping into his knowledge of herpetology. “But I don’t think you want to get bit by either one.”

LOS ANGELES – Andrew Bynum has played better against Denver than any team in basketball. Pau Gasol ain’t bad, either. But the key to the Lakers’ offense is setting up in the halfcourt and punishing the low post.

At practice today here in L.A., Nuggets coach George Karl said, “We’ve actually talked about, in a crazy way – now you can’t do it, but what if our center position was like hockey? Four or five-minute stints, just run, run, run, run. Next guy, run, run, run, run. Because I know Bynum and Gasol don’t want to run, run, run, run for 48 minutes. We can’t do that probably, but we actually talked about instead of playing guys 10 minutes, shortening it to 6-7 minutes.”

Karl will throw the kitchen sink, as they say, at L.A. Kosta Koufos and Kenneth Faried will start in the low post, but other forwards and bigs such as JaVale McGee, Al Harrington and Timofey Mozgov will log minutes for Denver.

LOS ANGELES — The beauty of the Denver Nuggets is their depth – the eight-top players average between 16.4 points per game and 8.9 (and two other Nuggets who are out for the season, Wilson Chandler and Rudy Fernandez, averaged 9.4 and 8.6).

“I’ll be honest with you,” coach George Karl said today at practice, “our second unit thinks they can beat our first unit. It’s not a fun scrimmage, because I would say, for the last six weeks, the second unit has been pretty dominating in practice.”

While Al Harrington is the top scorer of the second unit (14.2), Andre Miller is the motor. The point guard averages 6.7 assists per game, most on the team, which is even more impressive considering he averages 27.4 minutes per game.

The Nuggets will know tonight who they’ll play in the first round. Today they found out when. If Denver is the sixth seed, it will open on Sunday at the Lakers, the third seed.

But if Denver is seventh, it will open on Saturday at No. 2 Oklahoma City, this all according to an NBA press release.

If the Nuggets (37-28) win tonight’s regular-season finale at Minnesota, they will be the No. 6 seed — and will play the Lakers in the first round, arguably a more enticing opponent than the second-seeded Thunder.

If the Nuggets lose tonight, they still have a shot at the No. 6 seed. Dallas plays at Atlanta. If Dallas loses, Denver is the sixth seed. But if Denver loses and Dallas wins, the Mavericks are sixth, and the Nuggets are seventh.

The entire first-round playoff schedule will be released late tonight.

Chris Dempsey arrived at The Denver Post in Dec. 2003 after seven years at the Boulder Daily Camera, where he primarily covered the University of Colorado football and men's basketball teams. A University of Colorado-Boulder alumnus, Dempsey covers the Nuggets and also chips in on college sports.

Nicki Jhabvala is the Sports Digital News Editor for The Denver Post. Before arriving in Denver, she spent five years at Sports Illustrated working primarily as its online NBA editor, and she was most recently the overnight home page editor at the New York Times.